Episode #344 Contest: Bottom of the 6th, One Out

[bcimmet]

There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 2.8 bananas on a scale of 5 bananas. (Bananas has nothing to do with the puzzle, it's just a 1-to-5 scale we made up.) As always, I have a poor sense of difficulty, but between the grid and the fact that the subject of the puzzle may be of limited interest (and therefore require some Googling), we're giving this a 2.8.

The puzzle is called "Bottom of the 6th, One Out" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is the name of a major league baseball player. We highly encourage Googling (and hope you'll still enjoy the puzzle!) if baseball is not in your wheelhouse.

The crossword can be downloaded from here. You're welcome to solve and talk about the puzzle -- but if you want to be eligible for a prize, you have to listen to the podcast for this week's password. The podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, our own website, or wherever you collect your podcasts.

Once you've solved the puzzle, submit your answer and this week's password by email to fmi@bemoresmarter.com. You can also contact us with any suggestions, questions, comments, or ideas. Thanks for playing along!

[Schmeel]

Banana's peeled!
Thanks for the puzzle. And please congratulate Ryan on my behalf!

[BarbaraK]

Baseball is definitely not in my wheelhouse, so I approached this one with some trepidation. But I did recognize a bit and googled some stuff and came up with something and google says it is indeed the name of a major league baseball player. Whaddya know! Banana is peeled.

[boharr]

Banana is peeled. Baseball yes!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Banana is peeled. Baseball yes!

Ditto. Ditto!

[oldjudge]

This is my wheelhouse so, to use another edible, I hit a tater. Great job Brian, love the baseball content.

[whimsy]

First time trying one of these -- I at least recognized everything I was supposed to, and now understand the title!
So -- peeled the banana, and gave a bit to the bunny.

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers,

The solution to this contest was (SHOHEI) OHTANI.

There are six entries in the grid that are the names of baseball players, except one letter has been removed from each of their last names. All of this is loosely hinted by the title -- "bottom" implying the bottom half of their names (in down entries) ... "6th" implying six players ... and "one out" implying that one letter needed to be removed.

From left to right:

• 33D AARON BO(O)NE
• 21D TODD (H)ELTON
• 6D DEREK JE(T)ER
• 35D MIKE PI(A)ZZA
• 23D BARRY BO(N)DS
• 11D ROGER MAR(I)S

The missing letters spell, from left to right, OHTANI.

Thanks for playing! There's another contest puzzle and another post in the forum for it. I hope you give it a try!

[MikeM000]

I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but the red herring that tripped me up before I realized you spell upwards was that the "bottom of the sixth" column was NOLAN, as in Ryan. (Or Gary, if you're a Big Red Machine type of a person.) This coming at the same time as the week 5 Gaffney probably influenced that line of thought.

[bcimmet]

I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but the red herring that tripped me up before I realized you spell upwards was that the "bottom of the sixth" column was NOLAN, as in Ryan. (Or Gary, if you're a Big Red Machine type of a person.) This coming at the same time as the week 5 Gaffney probably influenced that line of thought.

Not at all on purpose -- sorry for the unintentional distraction!

[MikeM000]

Not at all on purpose -- sorry for the unintentional distraction!

No apologies necessary...red herrings are part of the game.